Kmele no longer mentioning places of employment is like the Virginia schools withholding National Merit Awards info to keep from hurting the other students.
Around day 5 I start to look at the last post and see if anyone’s complaining ... cause I’m not gonna be the one to say it. Happy to report, we’re a polite bunch.
"Republicans are hypocrites so I guess we're just doing MMT now" is both obviously true and tremendously depressing to those of us who actually plan to keep living here more than a few more years.
Fifth dropped at the perfect time for me to rationalize “if I’m waiting on this large hunk of beast to satisfactorily braise itself, I might as well just make the pasta too.” Now I’m a little drunk & super-full.
Wait, Reader's Digest was "conservative"?? That was just a thing that sat on top of my parents shitter without being touched while I was a kid. Mind blown.
Here in Canada it was *really* right wing in the eighties and nineties. It's actually where I first read about Nicolae Ceauseacu, less than a year before he and the missus were overthrown and shot.
No matter how many times I've heard it, whenever I hear Moynihan's Rev. Jackson voice, I crack up and keep chuckling for the duration of the bit. I actually don't think there is a limit on how long I'd laugh for if he kept it up...hours at least.
I am with Moynihan on the subject of nuclear weapons being used over Ukraine. Primarily because Russia doesn't stand to lose anything if it is unsuccessful in Ukraine. Their worst prospect is having wasted a decade, squandered their international credibility, and returned more or less to the place they were in 2014. Their own borders will remain intact, they will be able to receive a pass on reparations and guarantees against prosecution as well as the retention of their nuclear and conventional arms in return for peace and Ukraine's acceptance into NATO. Every war ends in negotiated peace, this one will be no different.
If Russia were to use atomic weapons in Ukraine none of that will comes to pass. One should always understand that it is the threat of nuclear weapons which has value but the use of those weapons all but ensures the destruction of that state as every western power which possesses nuclear stockpiles will hit them so hard that no other nation would even consider following that example in the future. Nuclear arms, of any type, will result in a world war and one which the east cannot withstand. They will be utterly destroyed and dismantled in the aftermath.
It may be a possibility, but an incredibly unlikely one.
That all seem rational, but what if Putin isn't acting rationally? I (am not sure, but I think that I) would actually like to believe that use of a nuke by a country would result in the annihilation of that country, as an example to others, but do you really think "the West" has the spine to follow through? I am very uncertain about that. Maybe against Pakistan, but I'm more skeptical when it comes to Russia (or India, or China, or Israel; nevermind any place in Europe).
Of course I think so. I didn't post this to stir shit up. Obviously I can't provide evidence of a future which doesn't yet exist, so if you disagree there isn't much I can offer to persuade you. Its all speculation. You can take consolation in knowing launching nuclear weapons is somewhat more difficult in real life than it is a video game, however, and so no single asshole can just punch a button and begin an automated process. There are a lot of individuals involved and it only takes one to kick of a chain reaction which leads to the abortion of such a strike. It has happened before -most famously in September of 1983.
I have less of a problem with the term “objective” in the context of classroom curriculum. While I understand the argument put forward by Kmele, what he seemed to be pushing for was something akin to the “fairness doctrine” of the legacy media, only applied to the classroom. I’m sorry, but there is no universe I can imagine where the 1619 project is part of the curriculum, even if the “other side” is presented as well. Because in my opinion the 1619 project is objectively bullshit. I don’t want my kids (grandkids in this case) taught that in grade school, where the goal is not to present them with “both sides” but to present them with easy to digest morsels that lay the foundation for what will later be (in college or young adulthood) the ability to think coherently and then decide what’s right and wrong. It is this sense of “objective” - something simple and non controversially true - that is the point of the legislation. In summary, don’t expose my young children to woke bullshit. They’ll get enough in college.
That was definitely the “strawman” segment of the show. I was extra perplexed by MM’s argument about private colleges that aren’t even located in the state of Florida. In the case most people are concerned with, the success of these students, both present and future. is predicated upon them repeating back to the authorities the bullshit that they are using the public treasury to feed to them.
While I don't disagree that many reasonable (and even eventually-proven-correct) Covid opinions were inappropriately suppressed, Jay Bhattacharya hasn't exactly covered himself in glory. I wouldn't blame his colleagues for treating him as a dingbat.
His original Santa Clara County antibody study (from March 2020) was a total mess. Like, his wife was recruiting participants via Facebook from their kids' school [0]. Then, with his ridiculously unreliable (wrong) data in hand, he authored a WSJ opinion piece [1] saying that "the real fatality rate could in fact be closer to 0.06%". That's off by ~10x, which is totally fine (many people were off by 10x in the other direction), but an honest person would revisit that, but he just kinda rolled with it.
His dipshittery got much worse in December 2022 when he joined the DeSantis Public Health Integrity Committee [2]. Nothing is wrong with looking back at the various Covid policies and seeing what was good and what was dumb and harmful (there's lots!). This includes vaccine policies -- AstraZeneca and J&J have a confirmed body count, and some of the recommendations for the mRNA vaccines are cavalier and less-than-evidence-based (e.g, [3]). But this committee is just partisan nonsense -- it includes Bret "Still on Mount Ivermectin" Weinstein, who is a completely dishonest actor. No reputable person would agree to join that committee.
On a semi-related topic, my candidate for the biggest scientific fuck-up during Covid is the airborne vs droplet transmission scandal [4]. (And I think everyone's candidate for biggest policy fuck-up is the Fall 2020 school closures).
Confession: I know (and could recite verbatim) each David Crosby song Matt listed. I own most of CSN/Y’s catalogue, and have seen them in concert several times. I rarely confess such truths in a public forum, but hey, we all have our faults, right? I hope you’ll let me stay. 🙏
My Dad’s an early Boomer/hippie. He played CSN/Y, the Beatles, the Allmans, the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, etc. on reel-to-reel constantly when we were kids—probably to make sure Catholic school didn’t indoctrinate us too much. 😆 Regardless, RIP Baby Daddy Crosby. You had a good run.
I've made it halfway through the NYT's "15 essential songs" from Croz, and oh man, it's just no, no, no, no, nope, my GOD no, etc. But as ever, musical taste is like assholes -- everybody's got one!
The great Todd in the Shadows recently did a "Trainwreckords" episode about the ill-fated CSNY reunion album "American Dream." It was largely made because Neil Young promised it to Crosby if he sobered up (and likely didn't think it would ever actually happen). In the meantime, Stephen Stills (whose "Got It Made" was the only good song on the album) had become the embarrassing drunk.
One of Crosby's songs was called "Nighttime for the Generals" and Todd says "it's about the dark spectre that haunted the eighties: Don Henley."
Fun episode, but yikes--they were not prepared for the ‘80s. 😳 I have to say the oddest crowd of people I’ve ever seen was at a Neil Young show. Very, very different than the genteel, wine-sipping CSN crowd. I saw them all in the early aughts, where (thankfully) their music sounded more nostalgic than tragic. They respectfully omitted American Dream from the set list. 😆
Todd notes that it was ironically CSN who'd actually had some success in the (early) eighties with the "Daylight Again" album, whereas Young was mired in his disastrous Geffen era.
Some of the Geffen albums, like the infamous "Trans," have gotten a reappraisal in recent years, but there's no salvaging "Landing on Water" and "Everybody's Rockin'." (I like "Old Ways" though.)
Touchè.😊 Curious to check out the NYT list. At midlife, I much prefer the angsty rock of my Gen X youth, but I can’t deny an odd propensity for late ‘60s rock. 🤷🏼♀️
Btw, I recently downloaded Pt. 1 of your Political Beats episode on The Beach Boys--looking forward to hearing your take! 👍
Well there's a really thorough Wikipedia article about the play. According to that article, the London show premiered in April, 1993, and had "Rufus Sewell as Septimus Hodge, Felicity Kendal as Hannah Jarvis, Bill Nighy as Bernard Nightingale, Emma Fielding as Thomasina Coverly, Allan Mitchell as Jellaby, Derek Hutchinson as Ezra Chater, Sidney Livingstone as Richard Noakes, Harriet Walter as Lady Croom, Graham Sinclair as Captain Brice, Harriet Harrison as Chloe Coverly, Timothy Matthews as Augustus and Gus Coverly and Samuel West as Valentine Coverly."
I’m not a David Crosby fan, but I am a Bob Lefsetz fan (despite his TDS+) bc of how he writes about music. If you’re curious why Crosby is famous, Lefsetz does a good job highlighting the why: https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2023/01/20/david-crosby/
Just returned from San Francisco, my old stomping grounds, and can report that the crime is real. Within one hour of arriving in the City by the Bay, out rental had the back window smashed and all of our luggage was gone. Luckily the criminal - who had hit five other cars (at 2:30pm during a short window of sunshine) already - only managed to take one backpack with only a few piddly items before being chased off by passersby.. The police came afterwards and took the rest to Central Station so they didn't get stolen by someone else.
Oh, and yes, I took our laptops inside with us. That's what I get for trying to get my kids (and myself) a delicious Ghirardelli ice cream sundae.
Kmele no longer mentioning places of employment is like the Virginia schools withholding National Merit Awards info to keep from hurting the other students.
If I don't hear a discussion of Melissa Ethridge using David Crosby's sperm within the first 10 minutes, I'm turning it off.
Sometimes ... we fall short.
In line at Chik-Fil-A last night, I told my husband that factoid. That's all we had to tell each other ;)
Dammit! Just mentioned that on the Weekend thread. Of all the nonsense in my head, why is that fact still there?
I think we both read People in the early 2000s?
Man I hope MM’s Maddow podcast isn’t the G&R Chinese Democracy of podcasts. Can’t wait!
haha great reference 😂
Thank god, I was going through TFC withdrawal.
Listening to Kmele on Honestly was a good dose of methadone.
Around day 5 I start to look at the last post and see if anyone’s complaining ... cause I’m not gonna be the one to say it. Happy to report, we’re a polite bunch.
Funny, I just finished watching the Megan Kelly episode for the same reason 😂
It’s comforting to know I’m not alone in that.
"Republicans are hypocrites so I guess we're just doing MMT now" is both obviously true and tremendously depressing to those of us who actually plan to keep living here more than a few more years.
Fifth dropped at the perfect time for me to rationalize “if I’m waiting on this large hunk of beast to satisfactorily braise itself, I might as well just make the pasta too.” Now I’m a little drunk & super-full.
Wait, Reader's Digest was "conservative"?? That was just a thing that sat on top of my parents shitter without being touched while I was a kid. Mind blown.
Conservative and funded covertly by the U.S. government, no less!
Whaaaa?
I miss the jokes. Jokes are funny,
Here in Canada it was *really* right wing in the eighties and nineties. It's actually where I first read about Nicolae Ceauseacu, less than a year before he and the missus were overthrown and shot.
No matter how many times I've heard it, whenever I hear Moynihan's Rev. Jackson voice, I crack up and keep chuckling for the duration of the bit. I actually don't think there is a limit on how long I'd laugh for if he kept it up...hours at least.
I will laugh.... until my grape.... turns into a raisin.
I am with Moynihan on the subject of nuclear weapons being used over Ukraine. Primarily because Russia doesn't stand to lose anything if it is unsuccessful in Ukraine. Their worst prospect is having wasted a decade, squandered their international credibility, and returned more or less to the place they were in 2014. Their own borders will remain intact, they will be able to receive a pass on reparations and guarantees against prosecution as well as the retention of their nuclear and conventional arms in return for peace and Ukraine's acceptance into NATO. Every war ends in negotiated peace, this one will be no different.
If Russia were to use atomic weapons in Ukraine none of that will comes to pass. One should always understand that it is the threat of nuclear weapons which has value but the use of those weapons all but ensures the destruction of that state as every western power which possesses nuclear stockpiles will hit them so hard that no other nation would even consider following that example in the future. Nuclear arms, of any type, will result in a world war and one which the east cannot withstand. They will be utterly destroyed and dismantled in the aftermath.
It may be a possibility, but an incredibly unlikely one.
That all seem rational, but what if Putin isn't acting rationally? I (am not sure, but I think that I) would actually like to believe that use of a nuke by a country would result in the annihilation of that country, as an example to others, but do you really think "the West" has the spine to follow through? I am very uncertain about that. Maybe against Pakistan, but I'm more skeptical when it comes to Russia (or India, or China, or Israel; nevermind any place in Europe).
Of course I think so. I didn't post this to stir shit up. Obviously I can't provide evidence of a future which doesn't yet exist, so if you disagree there isn't much I can offer to persuade you. Its all speculation. You can take consolation in knowing launching nuclear weapons is somewhat more difficult in real life than it is a video game, however, and so no single asshole can just punch a button and begin an automated process. There are a lot of individuals involved and it only takes one to kick of a chain reaction which leads to the abortion of such a strike. It has happened before -most famously in September of 1983.
I have less of a problem with the term “objective” in the context of classroom curriculum. While I understand the argument put forward by Kmele, what he seemed to be pushing for was something akin to the “fairness doctrine” of the legacy media, only applied to the classroom. I’m sorry, but there is no universe I can imagine where the 1619 project is part of the curriculum, even if the “other side” is presented as well. Because in my opinion the 1619 project is objectively bullshit. I don’t want my kids (grandkids in this case) taught that in grade school, where the goal is not to present them with “both sides” but to present them with easy to digest morsels that lay the foundation for what will later be (in college or young adulthood) the ability to think coherently and then decide what’s right and wrong. It is this sense of “objective” - something simple and non controversially true - that is the point of the legislation. In summary, don’t expose my young children to woke bullshit. They’ll get enough in college.
That was definitely the “strawman” segment of the show. I was extra perplexed by MM’s argument about private colleges that aren’t even located in the state of Florida. In the case most people are concerned with, the success of these students, both present and future. is predicated upon them repeating back to the authorities the bullshit that they are using the public treasury to feed to them.
While I don't disagree that many reasonable (and even eventually-proven-correct) Covid opinions were inappropriately suppressed, Jay Bhattacharya hasn't exactly covered himself in glory. I wouldn't blame his colleagues for treating him as a dingbat.
His original Santa Clara County antibody study (from March 2020) was a total mess. Like, his wife was recruiting participants via Facebook from their kids' school [0]. Then, with his ridiculously unreliable (wrong) data in hand, he authored a WSJ opinion piece [1] saying that "the real fatality rate could in fact be closer to 0.06%". That's off by ~10x, which is totally fine (many people were off by 10x in the other direction), but an honest person would revisit that, but he just kinda rolled with it.
His dipshittery got much worse in December 2022 when he joined the DeSantis Public Health Integrity Committee [2]. Nothing is wrong with looking back at the various Covid policies and seeing what was good and what was dumb and harmful (there's lots!). This includes vaccine policies -- AstraZeneca and J&J have a confirmed body count, and some of the recommendations for the mRNA vaccines are cavalier and less-than-evidence-based (e.g, [3]). But this committee is just partisan nonsense -- it includes Bret "Still on Mount Ivermectin" Weinstein, who is a completely dishonest actor. No reputable person would agree to join that committee.
On a semi-related topic, my candidate for the biggest scientific fuck-up during Covid is the airborne vs droplet transmission scandal [4]. (And I think everyone's candidate for biggest policy fuck-up is the Fall 2020 school closures).
[0] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemlee/stanford-coronavirus-study-bhattacharya-email
[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-the-coronavirus-as-deadly-as-they-say-11585088464
[2] https://www.flgov.com/2022/12/13/governor-ron-desantis-petitions-florida-supreme-court-for-statewide-grand-jury-on-covid-19-vaccines-and-announces-creation-of-the-public-health-integrity-committee/
[3] https://youtu.be/Q794f__8ZgI
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/opinion/coronavirus-airborne-transmission.html
Yes Bhattacharya has had a bad pandemic and has quadrupled downed numerous times. Good article on him being muzzled https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/muzzled/
Confession: I know (and could recite verbatim) each David Crosby song Matt listed. I own most of CSN/Y’s catalogue, and have seen them in concert several times. I rarely confess such truths in a public forum, but hey, we all have our faults, right? I hope you’ll let me stay. 🙏
My Dad’s an early Boomer/hippie. He played CSN/Y, the Beatles, the Allmans, the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, etc. on reel-to-reel constantly when we were kids—probably to make sure Catholic school didn’t indoctrinate us too much. 😆 Regardless, RIP Baby Daddy Crosby. You had a good run.
I've made it halfway through the NYT's "15 essential songs" from Croz, and oh man, it's just no, no, no, no, nope, my GOD no, etc. But as ever, musical taste is like assholes -- everybody's got one!
The great Todd in the Shadows recently did a "Trainwreckords" episode about the ill-fated CSNY reunion album "American Dream." It was largely made because Neil Young promised it to Crosby if he sobered up (and likely didn't think it would ever actually happen). In the meantime, Stephen Stills (whose "Got It Made" was the only good song on the album) had become the embarrassing drunk.
One of Crosby's songs was called "Nighttime for the Generals" and Todd says "it's about the dark spectre that haunted the eighties: Don Henley."
https://youtu.be/uG6UZvMdcKU
Fun episode, but yikes--they were not prepared for the ‘80s. 😳 I have to say the oddest crowd of people I’ve ever seen was at a Neil Young show. Very, very different than the genteel, wine-sipping CSN crowd. I saw them all in the early aughts, where (thankfully) their music sounded more nostalgic than tragic. They respectfully omitted American Dream from the set list. 😆
Todd notes that it was ironically CSN who'd actually had some success in the (early) eighties with the "Daylight Again" album, whereas Young was mired in his disastrous Geffen era.
Some of the Geffen albums, like the infamous "Trans," have gotten a reappraisal in recent years, but there's no salvaging "Landing on Water" and "Everybody's Rockin'." (I like "Old Ways" though.)
Touchè.😊 Curious to check out the NYT list. At midlife, I much prefer the angsty rock of my Gen X youth, but I can’t deny an odd propensity for late ‘60s rock. 🤷🏼♀️
Btw, I recently downloaded Pt. 1 of your Political Beats episode on The Beach Boys--looking forward to hearing your take! 👍
In 1994, I saw “Phantom of the Opera” and Tom Stoppard’s play “Arcadia” in London. Superb shows.
I just discovered Arcadia this year. Swoon! Anyone famous in the cast?
Well there's a really thorough Wikipedia article about the play. According to that article, the London show premiered in April, 1993, and had "Rufus Sewell as Septimus Hodge, Felicity Kendal as Hannah Jarvis, Bill Nighy as Bernard Nightingale, Emma Fielding as Thomasina Coverly, Allan Mitchell as Jellaby, Derek Hutchinson as Ezra Chater, Sidney Livingstone as Richard Noakes, Harriet Walter as Lady Croom, Graham Sinclair as Captain Brice, Harriet Harrison as Chloe Coverly, Timothy Matthews as Augustus and Gus Coverly and Samuel West as Valentine Coverly."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadia_(play)
That is an all-star cast. I've only seen it in local productions around Chicago, but it's my favorite play by a long shot.
That's a good cast, cheers!
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/317151998760749202/
Original playbill on Pinterest
I’m not a David Crosby fan, but I am a Bob Lefsetz fan (despite his TDS+) bc of how he writes about music. If you’re curious why Crosby is famous, Lefsetz does a good job highlighting the why: https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2023/01/20/david-crosby/
Thanks!
Just returned from San Francisco, my old stomping grounds, and can report that the crime is real. Within one hour of arriving in the City by the Bay, out rental had the back window smashed and all of our luggage was gone. Luckily the criminal - who had hit five other cars (at 2:30pm during a short window of sunshine) already - only managed to take one backpack with only a few piddly items before being chased off by passersby.. The police came afterwards and took the rest to Central Station so they didn't get stolen by someone else.
Oh, and yes, I took our laptops inside with us. That's what I get for trying to get my kids (and myself) a delicious Ghirardelli ice cream sundae.
As much as I'd love to enter a competition to attend the theatre with Kmele...does it have to be to see Phantom?! 😂
Yeah, let's sub in Leopoldstadt and I'm in!
Is Kanye invited? 😄
“Oh, that’s great!!!”